Blog

Have Realistic Expectations A lot has been said about a new study of happiness being tied to low expectations, but that isn’t the lesson of the study at all. Low expectations are a terrible goal. No one wants to be mediocre or run a lousy business. Instead, author and neuroscientist Robb Rutledge writes, “Happiness depends [...]

Expecting Success vs. Working towards Success

May I Take Your Order? vs. How Can I Help You? Name your top 3 favorite restaurants. How often have you visited them in the last month? My guess would be that you have visited McDonalds or another fast food restaurant more than once in the last month. Companies like McDonalds are the most profitable [...]

Perfect is the Enemy of Good: Beta Testing Your Business

The Other Steve With the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+ out–with a new watch to follow in 2015–I wasn’t surprised to see the enthusiasm for the iPhone has waned. It has almost become a joke (see The Oninon’s piece). But I also couldn’t stop thinking about how Apple came to where it is today. [...]

Steve Jobs and The “Other” Steve: Do You Have All the Skills?

In life, we often get advice “don’t reinvent the wheel.” But another maxim says: “Stick with the winners.” If you find yourself struggling to come up with a business idea to start or if you are wrestling with the same problem, step away from your world and take a look at what other people are doing. You [...]

Reinventing the Wheel: Mirror Other Successful Companies

When Dreams Become Nightmares If hiring great employees is a small battle, managing employees is a world war. Knowing many employers over the years, I often hear about employees that start off great with the bosses bragging about how motivated and detail-oriented the new hires are. At some point the honeymoon ends and there is [...]

Don’t Fire Your Employees: Righting the Wrongs of Nightmare Employees

Interviewing and hiring may seem simple, but the process requires preparation and forethought. You must be prepared when putting out an ad. You will receive many applications and not all resumes will be honest or accurate. With all this you will also be under pressure to fill the open position and get on with business. Here are 5 secrets to making a great hire. 1. Be clear what you are looking for in your ad. Be specific with duties and expectations listed. But most of all, understand that you probably won’t be able to find someone who has all the skills and experience you want. 2. Have a list of questions printed out before the interview. This will keep you on point and establishes professionalism. It is important to go over the job title and duties, and your expectations, in the initial interview. 3. Let each candidate know that whomever you hire will get a thirty-day trial period. I have had too many people tell me they can do a job that they simply cannot do. Telling them there is a trial period tends to keep them more honest with their assessment of their own abilities. 4. Conduct all the interviews over one or two days. This makes it easier to compare candidates. If the hiring is prolonged, you may lose a good early candidate or be more tempted to go with one you interviewed most recently. 5. I cannot stress this next point enough: Do not hire anyone the day you interview him or her, if at all possible. I do recognize that some positions just need to be filled with a warm body, but if it is more than this, sleep on it. I cannot tell you how many times my mind has changed with a night’s rest. I said this earlier but it bears repeating. Never, ever, ask interviewees their age, marital status, parenting status, religion or political views, as this opens you up for discrimination issues. But you should get a sense of the potential hire’s attitudes towards work and customer service. ”What would you do if…?” questions can get this information without asking inappropriate questions. For example, Steve Bell, owner of Pacific Cabinets, says. “If people have the same core values that we have—if they have a great attitude…if they have the ability to learn—then we can hire them and teach them anything they need to know in the business.”* *Source: http://www.sba.gov/blogs/5-tips-hiring-and-empowering-great-employees

5 Secrets To Hiring Great Employees Fast

Perhaps you’ve clicked past job listings that required advanced degrees you don’t have. That career ceiling typically disappears for successful entrepreneurs. In fact, college graduates experienced the largest slump in new business creation for 2011. Unlike a human resources department, most of your customers aren’t worried about what pieces of paper are hanging on the business [...]

5 Qualities of an Entrepreneur: Skip the MBA, Get a Mentor

When you are deciding what kind of business to start, think twice before you pick a business where hiring is harder than finding a rocket scientist. What do I mean? If you choose a business that requires an expertise or skill that you yourself don’t have, obviously you will need to hire someone who has [...]

Hiring for Small Your Business

Last week we started to talk about branding. Branding is a promise you make to your customers about an important quality or attribute they can expect to receive from using your product or service. Take a word of phrase that summarizes this promised quality and start to use it in your marketing materials. In your [...]

Branding Your Business Today!

When people talk about your company what do you want them to say? If you can summarize in one word the single most outstanding quality of your company, and have customers remember you by it, you will have struck gold. There are numerous well-known examples of a successful brand built on a single product idea [...]